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'Six of the Best' - perversely nostalgic!

by Anton J. Jesuthasan (Sajj)

'Six of the Best' - no, not the six academic disciplines adverted to below, but what was administered in many schools not long years ago for serious breaches of discipline, in other words, public caning. Such was its force as a powerful deterrent with the potential troublemaker.

The whole school would assemble in the great hall. The Head, cane in hand, would walk solemnly to the centre of the stage. The culprit, often a brazen bully, would be summoned up the stage to admit to his infamous behaviour, ordered to receive his punishment in public, and save himself a dismissal. The shame more than the pain kept bullies at bay - the Head was often a man with a heart!

Administered as corrective, discipline may seem a distasteful pill, yet it may prove the lifesaver that eventually averts an inglorious exit. Administered judiciously from young, it helps shape and build character. Adopted heartily, it is a fount of pride and pleasure. That is discipline in its commonly understood sense of moral responsibility and adherence to acceptable codes of conduct and behaviour.

Connotation of the word 'discipline' is wide, the word's embrace is the whole of society in every sphere of life, not merely youth or children around whom the word popularly revolves. Discipline in its many senses permeates society, touches people's lives in many different ways.

There are disciplines that dominate Academia, dominate religious institutions, the Armed Forces, the Police. There are, besides, office discipline, fiscal discipline, physical discipline, investment discipline, self-discipline, discipline in managing the affairs of State, you name it! Breaches of these various special categories of discipline generally carry their peculiar and preordained sanctions and consequences.

It is germinal discipline, discipline of the 'mundane' yet crucially important genre, discipline in its sense of good moral conduct, observance of rules, adherence to codes of behaviour, extending and expanding as law and order at higher levels, the antithesis of which is indiscipline and lawlessness, at worst anarchy and chaos, that is of concern to most people the world over, in these globally turbulent times.

The 'disciplines' of law, medicine, accountancy, engineering, architecture, mathematics and such like belongs in academia. Discipline here means academic study of a kind requiring a defined approach. An academic pursues his chosen 'discipline' in a systematic or disciplined manner, hence the term. If his approach is disciplined, he succeeds; if undisciplined or haphazard, he founders.

A churchman's discipline could mean strict adherence to religious rites and rituals and related observances, as well as deference and obedience to hierarchy or authority. One also expects to find discipline in its moral and civic sense in a man of God.

Discipline to a military or police commander and his men, is unquestioning obedience to orders, 'theirs is not to question why, theirs is but to do and die', respect for rank and insignia of office, group loyalty flowing in every direction, undisputed loyalty to nation, duty to society before concern for self, discipline that melds men and women of diverse origins and persuasions into one single, distinct, yet indistinguishable group.

Authority, integrity and punctuality are some of the hallmarks of office discipline. Some administrators and operatives pride themselves in the efficient organisations or establishments they help run.

Fiscal discipline figures largely in the realms of government: lack of fiscal discipline, or deliberate breach for purely political ends by Governments in power can bankrupt nations, and drive Governments out of power.

Neglect of physical discipline needs no elaboration, stories of 'here yesterday, gone today' being common currency; so with investment discipline or the lack of it, personal success stories, or disaster stories of bank and corporate failures, making or marring individuals or a trusting public, regularly filling the pages of news-media all over the world.

Self-discipline deserves special mention, for self-discipline is the life force that energizes all other forms of discipline. Where there is self-discipline, there is honesty, integrity, a sense of duty and responsibility, consequent order, success, satisfaction and true happiness. Self-discipline also entails self-sacrifice for the good of others, if the life of someone like Mahatma Gandhi can be an example.

What is demanded of a successful musician or artiste is another example of self-discipline.

Discipline in managing the affairs of state is best seen by viewing someone like Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, the erstwhile British Prime Minister. She was known as the "Iron Lady" for the 'iron-grip' discipline she exercised over her cabinet of ministers and others in the administration, not to promote her personal ambition or political ends, but for the proper administration and welfare of the country.

Germinal discipline begins at birth, if not at conception, although science now claims that the mother influences the baby from before its birth. It is instilled from the cradle and needs to be nourished until the grave. It is reinforced and strengthened over childhood and youth.

Some rules, some codes of behaviour, have the force of law, the non-observance of which has legal sanctions. Discipline applies where rules have no force of law, as for example the rules of the local village society, or of a club, the breach of which will impinge adversely on other members of the society or club.

There are also the unwritten rules of civic society, like 'your freedom of movement stops where the other man's nose begins!' The enforcement of these rules is discipline, observance without coercion is self-discipline, its breach is indiscipline.

Many in today's societies see 'Six of the Best', that form of maintaining discipline at school, as cruel. Or was it merciful, offering a chance to reform? Dismissal offered no second chance and may well have served to swell the ranks of the delinquent drop-out!

Our parents accepted it, as did their parents, for they had all been through that rigorous system themselves, and were none the worse for it. Those were days when they believed in the saying, "spare the rod and spoil the child".

Such punishment, which emphasized the importance of discipline from young, didn't necessarily need to be visited, it wasn't unavoidable. The poor victim with the bloodied nose, in constant fear of continual harassment, humiliation, and cruelty at the hands of the bully, may not concede that the punishment is cruel.

School discipline has become so badly undermined these days and the desire for its restoration so strong, that 'six of the best' feels perversely nostalgic.

Cane in schools symbolised aversion to indiscipline, just like it symbolises revulsion to crime. Countries such as Singapore and Malaysia supplement imprisonment with caning for some of the more despicable offences.

The caning that Singapore meted out a few years ago to an American youth for nights of vandalising expensive cars parked outside people's homes that first attracted pleas for remission or protests from powerful voices around the world, were later followed by calls in some American states for the introduction of similar punishment for similar cimes in their home turf - such is the revulsion that people feel for certain crimes otherwise dealt with by derisory punishment.

Only the law-breakers need fear such laws; the law-abiding enjoy a sense of security from such laws.

Indiscipline erodes its practitioner's moral fibre, corrupts him, and leads to his own decay and ruin, at the same time inflicting damage on his victims. Indiscipline is disregard for, or positive violations of, society's valued precepts, eventually leading to violence and crime. Indiscipline is the first step towards minor crime, which can deteriorate into major crime.

A former Deputy Inspector General of Police, and President of the Retired Senior Police Officers' Association, Achilles Joseph, in a recent pre-eminent article on crime prevention, in a local newspaper under the title ' Regaining Sri Lanka by "Zero Tolerance" Policing', cited the New York Police Department adopting with success 'zero tolerance' policing, a strong law enforcement approach to minor crime, that prevents more serious crimes from occurring, ultimately leading to falling crime. It seems that this was also the approach that the then Ceylon Police adopted years ago when the criminal was kept in relative check.

New York in the United States was a terror-ridden city in the early nineties. The D.I.G. quotes a 'New York Observer' article that under the zero-tolerance system, New York by the mid nineties had become one of the safest cities in America, murders down by some 40%, burglaries down by a quarter, robberies 30% fewer.

The approach that schools and parents, rich and poor, more so the poor, adopted in the matter of discipline some decades ago in this country wasn't anything else either but 'zero tolerance' of indiscipline. With greater affluence, and the spread of Western influences, laxity has set in, leading to gradual erosion of discipline at home and at school,l and generally in other spheres of life.

Advocates of 'zero tolerance' with regard to discipline in schools are beginning to emerge in the West now, but there are also as many detractors of the system and the matter remains stalemated at present.

Discipline derives, inter-alia, from respect for authority, another trait to be developed from young. Lack of this respect and the indiscipline that it breeds produce the rioters and the rabble raisers of today.

Student involvement in politics has also been seen as a contributing factor to breakdown in discipline. Some educationists are of the view that there is something wrong with the ideology of students in matters connected with politics, economics, social order, and that students should therefore be not involved in politics until they finish their education, when they will be better able to view matters with a more mature and pragmatic mind. Can one argue against this view, when one sees the student agitators of yesteryears around the world now in their more mature guises?

Indiscipline is rampant in the country in diverse forms, deteriorating most times into breach of law: the callous disregard on the country's roads to traffic rules, the littering on roads, dumping of rubbish in public places, the neglect of hygiene in public transport such as trains and in public places, violent ragging in the so-called seats of learning, disregard for authority and hierarchy in public and private institutions, corruption and influence peddling, and many other malpractices, the nonchalance of those in positions of responsibility to these failings, are but few examples, yet a clear demonstration and a direct by-product of indiscipline.

Parents generally, exceptions there are, have failed in their first duty of care and concern for the disciplined up-bringing of their offspring; teachers, unlike in olden times, have largely surrendered their authority and responsibility to stand 'in loco parentis' to their wards; disapprobation and sanctions traditionally exercised over the errant by society have become virtually non-existent.

Discipline curbs freedom, some argue. A disciplined environment, in reality, nourishes, protects and fosters freedom, releasing the environment to be enjoyed free of the trammels of choking oppression.

The need of the hour, in the current environment of heated electioneering, as well as for the longer term considering the progressive erosion that the country experiences in its law and order situation generally, is the reinstitution of discipline, at all levels of establishment and society.

It may be useful to know that polling day is usually the most peaceful in many developed countries, the U. K. in Europe, or Singapore in Asia, being just two examples.

Leaders make it clear to rank and file that the dire consequences of any breach in discipline are each individual's look out. The Police brook no misdemeanour in the run up to polling day. The Courts dispense speedy justice when recourse is made. Sri Lanka need not be different.

Most election violence has its beginnings in little breaches of discipline.

It does not behove us to pretend that nothing is amiss with our state of discipline. It only takes realisation, determination and diligence to put the situation right.

Encouraging noises are beginning to be heard from politicians and the Police about their determination to ensure law and order in the run-up to the elections and its aftermath. For the longer run, even if we start with only our own children at our homes and at school, we will, in time, have 'regained' the country for ourselves and our progeny.

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